Bookkeeping and Accounting Setup
Assess whether your new business has a bookkeeping system, chart of accounts, and process to keep clean records from the start.
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For founders, new owners, and anyone starting out
Founder Equity and Ownership Split
Think through how ownership, vesting, and contributions are split among founders, and what to document before issuing equity.
6 guided steps
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Official guidance links
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Your free guided checker
Answer a few quick questions below. It is private - nothing is submitted or stored - and takes about a minute.
Informational business-formation diagnostic only; not legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. Confirm entity, tax, and state decisions with a qualified attorney and CPA.
The questions this tool walks you through
Here is what the checker asks and why each step matters. Prefer to talk it through? Contact us and we will help directly.
Will more than one person receive founder equity in exchange for building the business?
A solo owner and a multi-founder team face very different splitting, vesting, and dispute risks - this routes the whole analysis.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Is any founder receiving equity mainly for money, property, or intellectual property already contributed, rather than for future work?
Equity for a past cash or asset contribution is a capital event; equity earned by working over time is treated very differently for both tax and vesting.
Split by contributed capital and value the property and IP transfers with a CPA.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Will one or two founders clearly carry most of the ongoing work, or hold the original idea, key relationships, or funding?
A lopsided contribution rarely justifies an equal split; naming the imbalance now is far easier than renegotiating after the business has value.
Use the interactive tool above to see how this applies to your situation.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Do you intend to raise outside investment or grant an employee option pool within the next few years?
If money and options are coming, founder shares should be corporate stock with a clean cap table - LLC membership units make later financing and option grants far harder.
Issue restricted founder stock with vesting and file 83(b) elections within 30 days.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Could the team survive one of the working founders leaving in the first year or two without losing their full stake?
Without vesting, a founder who quits early keeps every share issued - the single most common and most damaging founder-equity mistake.
Put the agreed split in an operating agreement with buy-back and transfer restrictions. Add founder vesting and a buy-back right before any equity is issued.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
Do you expect to bring on a co-founder, key hire, or investor who would receive equity within the next couple of years?
A sole founder's split is trivial today, but the choices you make at formation decide how cleanly you can add owners later without over-diluting.
Authorize extra shares and reserve an equity pool before you need to grant it. Take full ownership now and keep a simple cap table you can expand later.
Official guidance: SBA launch your business
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